R&D Centre, Natural Remedies Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore, India.
Phytomedicine. 2011 Feb 15;18(4):278-84. doi: 10.1016/j.phymed.2010.08.001. Epub 2010 Sep 22.
Glycyrrhiza glabra and its phytoconstituents have been known to possess widespread pharmacological properties as an anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, antitumour and hepatoprotective drug. In this study, we examined the inhibitory potential of extract of G. glabra (GutGard™) root and its phytoconstituents (glabridin, glycyrrhizin, and isoliquiritigenin) on both cyclooxygenase (COX) and lipoxygenase (LOX) products in order to understand the mechanism of its anti-inflammatory action. Inhibitory effect of GutGard™ and its phytoconstituents on lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced prostaglandin E(2) (PGE(2)), calcimycin (A23187) induced thromboxane (TXB(2)), and leukotriene (LTB(4)) release was studied using murine macrophages (J774A.1) and human neutrophil (HL-60) cells. Results revealed that, G. glabra and glabridin significantly inhibited PGE(2), TXB(2) (COX) and LTB(4) (LOX), while, isoliquiritigenin exerted inhibitory effect only against COX products but failed to suppress LOX product. However, glycyrrhizin at the tested concentrations failed to exhibit inhibitory effect on both COX and LOX products. Here, we report for the first time that G. glabra (almost devoid of glycyrrhizin) exhibits anti-inflammatory property likely through the inhibition of PGE(2), TXB(2) and LTB(4) in mammalian cell assay system, which could be influenced in part by glabridin and isoliquiritigenin.
甘草及其植物成分被广泛认为具有抗炎、抗病毒、抗肿瘤和保肝作用。在这项研究中，我们研究了甘草提取物（GutGard™）根及其植物成分（甘草素、甘草甜素和异甘草素）对环氧化酶（COX）和脂氧合酶（LOX）产物的抑制潜力，以了解其抗炎作用的机制。采用小鼠巨噬细胞（J774A.1）和人中性粒细胞（HL-60）细胞研究 GutGard™及其植物成分对脂多糖（LPS）诱导的前列腺素 E2（PGE2）、钙调蛋白（A23187）诱导的血栓素（TXB2）和白三烯（LTB4）释放的抑制作用。结果表明，甘草和甘草素显著抑制 PGE2、TXB2（COX）和 LTB4（LOX），而异甘草素仅对 COX 产物具有抑制作用，但不能抑制 LOX 产物。然而，在测试浓度下，甘草甜素对 COX 和 LOX 产物均无抑制作用。在此，我们首次报道甘草（几乎不含甘草甜素）可能通过抑制哺乳动物细胞检测系统中的 PGE2、TXB2 和 LTB4 发挥抗炎作用，这可能部分受到甘草素和异甘草素的影响。
